a new puppy

  Obama’s kids, Sasha and Malia, are getting a new puppy when they move into the White House.  My 10 and 7-year olds have decided that it’s not fair.  Moving to the White House is nothing, they argue.  We moved much further — all the way to Taiwan and we didn’t get a puppy or […]

wedding bells

  We went to a wedding today (well, I didn’t, I was at home eating soup, but I sent my girls).  My wonderful Chinese teacher, Chen laoshi’s, son was getting married.  It was a great opportunity to dress up and have a real Chinese banquet lunch.  (Bride and groom to the left, Chen laoshi next […]

coming back to myself

Two days ago I returned the wheel-chair to the hospital. It was a big decision. I liked that wheel-chair. But it was quite a sensation to simply stand up and walk. Yesterday I went up to my study. Spent much of the day organizing papers, mainly throwing things away. I ate some minuscule pieces of […]

what girls like

I know what girls like.  Well, I know what 10 and 12 year old girls like.  They like the new ASUS EEE 900 computer.  It’s cute, it’s friendly, it’s easy to use and to carry around.  Beata in particular has been pestering me about getting one for months.  I promised I would buy one for […]

a sudden desire to eat pineapple

This was not what I expected.  I thought I was going to get well really soon.  I assumed that the last day of radiation would be the end of it all and that everything would get better from then on.  It hasn’t worked that way. During the first two weeks since the treatment stopped I […]

Erik is having a hard time right now

One can never know what to expect with this treatment. When we thought about it back at the beginning of September I guess we imagined immediate recovery or something very close when it was done. The reality is that it is very painful, hard, tedious and long for Erik. He cannot eat enough to be […]

three more years?

Maybe I sbouldn’t count on more than three years?  Most cancers seem to come back after three years.  Maybe that’s what it take for a tumor to grow big enough for the doctors to see it.  If so, I’ll have a recurrence in 2011, when I’m fifty. I’d better prepare for that.  When the cancer […]

the first day of the rest of my life

This is the first day of the rest of my life.  Of course I’m relieved.  I survived.  I didn’t have to go into the hospital.  I didn’t need a feeding tube.  I lost 10 kilos but only two large tufts of hair.  I wish I could be happier, but I still feel really, really lousy.  […]

last week round-up

This is the summary of the last week of treatment.  Believe it or not, right now even four days more seem like a long time.  I’m planning to take a lot of morphine and just let the days happen. Oct 6, Monday:  I worry that Dr Ding is going to give me a feeding tube […]

I’ve got wheels

Going home from the hospital Tuesday this week, I really didn’t feel like navigating the Taipei subway and the High Speed Train stations on my own.  I felt too weak.  But as it turns out, it is easy to borrow a wheel-chair from the NTU hospital.  And I’ve been using it ever since.  I always […]